


Not All Jocks

by NattheBattz



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, High School AU, I don't even like sports??, Skimmons being dorks really, This is somehow a sports related fic??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-12 01:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5648920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NattheBattz/pseuds/NattheBattz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma is pretty distraught that her teacher is giving the class a partnered project in which she cannot choose Fitz as her partner. Fitz assures her that it cannot be that bad, but she still has her misgivings from past experiences. They will just have to wait and see which one of them is right this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not All Jocks

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted fic for Tumblr user: pizza-is-my-buziness. (They totally provide me with lethal doses of Skimmons on my blog, so this is the absolute least I could do.)  
> Here you go man, I'm sorry this is late, I had to go to school and all that good jazz!

Jemma Simmons likes to consider herself an exemplary student. She studies the requested material weeks in advance, going above and beyond in order to score the highest marks possible on her tests, participates in class everyday- even if she has a headache- and she does not disrupt the class no matter how bored she finds herself with the rudimentary material. All things taken into account, Jemma holds her student reputation quite highly; which is why she cannot, for the life of her, figure out why her teacher is insisting on punishing her. Group projects are not actually that bad, when she is allowed to pick Fitz as her partner, but when choosing her own partner is not an option, group projects are very high on her list of "horrible-American-experiences," right on up there with the time she tried iced tea. 

"Oh, come off it Jemma, it won't be nearly as horrible as you're making it out to be." Fitz says while his elbow finds a spot between two of her right side ribs. She huffs in exasperation as she shifts away from his cheerfulness. 

"Shut it Fitz, you're just hoping you get paired with Grant." Jemma replies, a smirk replacing her frown as she watches her best friend's cheeks tint a light shade of pink under the accusation. 

"You want to say that any louder? Jeeze." He hisses under his breath as he glances over his left shoulder to where Grant normally sits, four desks behind Jemma. "He just looks so good in his letterman Jemma. Honestly, it's not fair at all." He sighs before turning back toward the front of the room to face the whiteboard. Jemma wants to glance back to try and- for the thousandth time- see what Fitz sees in the jock, but she can't bring herself to take her eyes off the red letters on the board causing her to be so dreadful right now. "What if you get paired up with Daisy?" Fitz asks moments later as he leans closer to Jemma's desk so that his whisper can be heard. Jemma hopes that her blush is not nearly as obvious as Fitz's, and she sits up straighter as if being an inch taller in her seat will help her ignore the slight flutter her stomach is giving her at the idea Fitz just put into her head. 

"What if I do? We both know that I'll just end up doing all the work, which is also exactly what will happen if you get paired with Grant. Or anyone really. Maybe not Al though, he seems like the type to pull his own weight, but that is entirely beside the point. This is a horrible way to start my Monday, regardless." Jemma dismisses with a wave of her hand, and before Fitz can say anything else, their teacher walks in just as the bell rings. 

"Alright class, if you've read the board, then you know that you have a partnered project that will be due in two weeks. Now, I know that I normally let you all pick your partners, but as you've probably heard from other teachers, in the real world, you don't get to pick who you work with. So, this is to just help expand your horizons some, and to give you some applicable practice at working with someone other than your best friend. I put your names in a randomizer last night to assign partners, and these are the results. Anyone want to give me a drumroll?" Mr. Coulson finishes by holding out his hands as if he's actually looking for volunteers. Jemma can't help but turn around to see who's currently beating on their desks in an attempt of providing a drumroll, and she barely manages to not roll her eyes when she sees Daisy, Grant, and Lance as the culprits. She turns back to glance at Fitz and fails to suppress her eye roll at how smitten he looks at the display. 

Jemma smiles despite herself when she sees Fitz slightly tense up in shock when Grant is announced as his partner, and she glances back in time to see Daisy good naturedly slug Grant's right arm. She's so busy telling herself that it's not a cute interaction that she doesn't hear her own name be called out. It isn't until Daisy's eyes widen and look directly at her that she hears the echo of their names together in her head. Jemma watches as Ward returns the punch against Daisy's left arm, and that seems to break the other girl's train of thought as she glances toward the boy in question. "You look a little bit excited for someone who's dreading doing all the work."  
"Shut it Fitz." Jemma doesn’t give him the satisfaction of looking up from the notebook lying open on her desk, but she doesn't need to in order to see the smirk that she can practically feel on his face. 

*******

"Hi."

"Hey there." Daisy doesn't say anything more after setting her bag down where Fitz's had been moments ago. Mr. Coulson has given them the rest of the class period to start brainstorming their ideas for their projects, and Fitz had quickly whispered something about wishing him luck before he went to meet Grant at his desk. She glances back to see that Fitz and Daisy had simply just switched desks. 

"So do you have anything that you specifically want to do, or are you open to suggestions?" Jemma asks, not really expecting the other girl to be much help. Daisy may be beautiful to the point where it becomes distracting at some times, but Jemma has seen enough of her work ethic to know that she hardly has one to speak against in the first place. She hardly ever does her work, and she never participates more than absolutely necessary in class, and Jemma honestly wonders how she's still passing. (But she knows that the other girl must be since she's still on the school's varsity softball team. Not that she pays attention to the other girl's activities or anything like that.) Jemma is so wrapped up in her thoughts about why Daisy is not a good partner, that she completely misses her response, and only realizes it when a silence stretches out between the two of them. She can feel her cheeks burn in shame, and she hopes that it isn't too noticeable. "I'm sorry, what?" Daisy just laughs it off while waving her hand.

"It's cool, don't sweat it. I just said that I think it'd be cool to do a project over digital immortality and how it includes the human mind processing power, like, in comparison to hard drive processing power, and the advancement of technology, and maybe even toss in the moral aspects of whether or not it's 'wrong,' but I'm totally up for suggestions too if you don't want to do that." Daisy finishes, her eyes looking anywhere but directly at Jemma as she says the last part of her sentence, as if she is embarrassed by her idea. Jemma doesn't know what to say, because that's a very interesting topic, and it seems like something incredibly fun to do, but she had been expecting Daisy to shrug her shoulders and say that they could do whatever Jemma wants to do because she didn't care. Jemma is at a loss for words, because she feels really embarrassed that she had been so quick to write Daisy off. The girl in question clears her throat and scuffs the toe of her shoe against the linoleum as she casts her glance toward the floor, "I uh, I know it's pretty lame, but-"

"No! I don't think that it is 'lame' at all! I just, had not really expected, that." Jemma insists, interrupting the other girl, because Jemma has seen that look one too many times on Fitz or even herself as they mentioned something they were passionate about to other people only to be shot down since they're not exactly normal teenagers. Daisy glances up from the floor, and looks over Jemma's face, searching for something, and after a moment she sighs and looks back down again. 

"You weren't expecting me to actually contribute anything were you?" She asks, her voice so low that Jemma almost loses it in the drone of the other student's background conversations. Jemma wonders if anyone else is having such a rough start as they seem to be. 

"Not really, honestly." Jemma admits, feeling the embarrassment of being an outright snob wash over her as the other girl nods her head slightly. 

"Well, sorry to disappoint, but I don't like other people doing my work for me." Daisy says, a sharp edge to her voice, and Jemma can't deny that she completely deserves it. A moment later Daisy sighs and shakes her head, a smile replacing her earlier frown. "Look, I meant what I said, we don't have to do that if you don't want to, but whatever we end up doing, the work is going to be split fifty-fifty whether you like it or not. I'm not letting you do this whole thing by yourself, so just text me with whatever it is you want to do, and we can meet up after school to work on it because I know you'll want to have it done way before it's actually due because that's how you roll." 

"I don't have your number." Jemma is having a hard time processing what she just heard, but she's preoccupied with trying not to blush at the apparent fondness in Daisy's lazy smile as she finishes her mini-speech. Daisy hums and nods as she reaches toward Jemma's desk to grab her pen, and she leans over to write down her number on the corner of her notebook. Jemma glances down to watch her pen glide across the paper, leaving black numbers and swirly letters in its wake. 

The bell rings, and Daisy is already up and slinging her bag over her shoulder before Jemma can find her voice. "Hey, wait." Daisy stops and quirks an eyebrow at her as she leans back onto her left leg. "Um. I just, wanted to apologize. For my earlier misconception of you. It was terribly shallow, and I should not have judged you as a partner without ever having you as one." Jemma forces herself to maintain eye contact as she delivers her apology, because that's the polite thing to do, and she's glad she does as she gets to watch a smile slowly grow then shine full force on Daisy's lips. 

"Don't worry about it. It's probably the jacket," she dismisses as she grabs at the collar on her letterman, "brings out the worst in people. I won't hold it against you so long as we're on the same page from now on, yeah?" She glances toward the door to see Grant waiting for her, motioning with his hand for her to hurry up. Jemma feels rather than sees Fitz standing behind her a few steps back. 

"Yeah, sounds great." Jemma feels a smile of her own slide across her lips. Daisy nods as if that's the deciding word.

"Alright cool. Text me. I gotta go before Ward busts a blood vessel. Later Jemma!" She calls out as she pushes Grant by the shoulders out of the classroom. 

"You alright?" Fitz asks as he holds up Jemma's bag for her while she stands up from her desk. She glances at the number written in her notebook before shaking her head.

"I was wrong Fitz." He gives her a knowing smile before shaking his head in return as they continue on their way to the library where they spend their lunch. 

"It's known to happen from time to time Jemma." He replies as he holds the door open for her. She turns a halfhearted glare on him, and he just laughs. Jemma thinks of the smile Daisy gave her, and she thinks that maybe being wrong isn't all that bad. In this instance at least. (She does not want to start making a habit of it though.)

*******

Jemma texts Daisy after school, telling her how cool she thinks the topic is, and she pretends to not be worried when the other girl does not respond within the hour. She's already reading through five tabs she has open on her web browser when her phone goes off, and she tells herself that her heart rate did not just increase. (But it did.) She reaches for her phone, and gets insanely nervous as she sees Daisy's name above the text notification. Daisy tells her how sorry she is for the late response, that she was preoccupied with softball practice, and that she could come over or Jemma could come over to her house whenever so that they can hammer out the details of what they want their project to include. Once it's decided that Daisy will come over to Jemma's house the next day, Jemma assumes that the other girl will stop replying to her texts. She's pleasantly surprised when the other girl instead turns the conversation to topics that are not school related, and Jemma is further surprised to find that texting Daisy is much like talking to her. She's funny, sarcastic, and when Jemma fears the conversation will end, the other girl makes sure it doesn't. For the first time in her life, Jemma falls asleep while texting someone, and she can't bring herself to chastise herself for it. (Especially when she wakes up to a good morning text with a smiley face after it.) Jemma absolutely does not find herself smiling at her phone screen, because that is absolutely ridiculous. (She absolutely does though.) 

*******

"This is ridiculous." Daisy whispers as her shoulder bumps into Jemma's due to her leaning closer to the other girl. Jemma hums as she glances up from her laptop to glance where Daisy's gaze is directed. She chuckles as she finds Fitz and Grant huddled together at a table across the library from them, their chairs incredibly close, and every time they glance up from the magazine they're reading, Daisy pretends to gag at the "heart-eyes" (as she has dubbed it) they're making. "Is Leo into dudes?" Daisy asks as she goes back to jotting down facts in the spiral Jemma provided for this project. 

"Why?" Jemma asks as she tries to keep her voice steady, wary of one of the popular kids wondering about her best friend's sexuality, even if said popular kid is Daisy. Jemma likes Daisy, they've had a rather good time the two times that they've gotten together to work on their project, but Fitz isn't exactly out to the whole world. Much to Jemma's delight- even if she will never admit it- the last time they got together, no real work had been accomplished due to the fact that they ended up talking about other things, then going out for dinner- "a snack break" as Daisy liked to call it- then they went back to Jemma's house and just watched a movie. Jemma isn't usually one for procrastinating, but seeing as they're now working on the verbal presentation aspect of their assignment, the actual body of the project being completed earlier during their class period, with over a week to go until the deadline, she can allow it. (Just this once.) It has nothing to do with the fact that Jemma fears that Daisy won't be her friend anymore after the project is done. (Not at all.)

"Because I keep telling Ward to go for it, but he doesn't know if Leo likes guys or not. He really wants to ask him to come to the baseball game this Friday, and I keep telling him to, but he doesn't want Leo to react badly or anything since they've really only started talking this week." Daisy elaborates, setting down her pen in favor of looking at Jemma, so Jemma does the same as she turns away from her laptop.

"Fitz likes people. Gender isn't really a factor."

"Why do you call him by his last name?"

"Why do you call Grant by his last name? And wouldn't you want to go by your last name if your first name was Leopold?" Daisy laughs and shakes her head, and Jemma tells herself that it's not a sound that has been growing on her for the past four days.

"We all call each other by our last names, it's just what we do. Although, I used to go by Skye, because it's what I always wanted my name to be, but after I moved here just before freshman year I let the coaches call me Johnson, and that's what stuck. The guys usually call me Daisy though, since it's shorter than Johnson. As far as Leopold goes, I guess Fitz does have a better ring to it." 

"I didn't really think that Grant would be into guys, aren't you jock types supposed to be like, bigots about that kind of thing?" Jemma asks, and her eyes widen in shock as Daisy laughs loudly enough to get the boys across the library to look back at them accompanied by a harsh and disembodied hushing noise directed at them from wherever the librarian is hidden amongst the bookshelves. 

"I'm sorry, but I mean, aren't you nerdy types supposed to not be insanely attractive? We don't have to fit our stereotypes y'know? Everyone was really cool with Ward and me being queer." 

"Okay wait. One: you think I'm 'insanely attractive'? And two: you're not straight?" Jemma asks, hoping that the library actually just increased in temperature rather than the alternative explanation that she is now blushing furiously.

"Nothing gets past you Jemma Simmons." 

"Oh, shut it you." Jemma whines as she pushes Daisy's left shoulder away from her before she picks up reading the article on her monitor. Minutes pass by only interrupted by the scratching of Daisy's pen against the paper of Jemma's notebook as she continues to take notes for the both of them. Jemma glances over at what the other girl is writing and has to bite her lip to keep from smiling too largely at the note she sees written at the top left corner of the paper. 

_Jemma Simmons is super smart and incredibly hot. - A bisexual_

Jemma pulls up the note page she's keeping in a word document and types her own note, putting it and the article she's still reading on the monitor at the same time. She's almost forgotten about the bolded text by the time she hears a snort followed by quiet laughter. 

"So, if I were to ask you to come to my game tonight, would you say yes?" Daisy asks, and Jemma almost gives herself whiplash with how quickly she looks at the other girl. She smiles and stops herself before she replies, and instead adds to her previous note. Daisy's eyes follow along with the appearing letters and her smile is bright enough to blind by the time Jemma puts a period. Instead of saying anything though, Daisy just adds to her own note. 

**Daisy Johnson is not straight, and I- a bisexual with a weakness for attractive women- do not know how to handle this new information.  
Of course, I would love to.**

_Cool. I would love for you to as well. You can bring Fitz so he can spend more time with Ward. :)_

*******

"Hey Leo, Simmons, glad you could make it!" Ward envelops them both in a hug as they walk up toward the stands at the softball field. The sun is setting, and the two teams are already warming up. "This is going to be a really intense game. We're facing off against our rivals, the Hydras. They think they're hot shit, but we're going to prove them wrong tonight and tomorrow night too." Ward says as they all climb to the middle row of the bleachers, but Jemma is more focused on finding the girl she came here for rather than holding a conversation at the moment.

"Wait, why'd you call Jemma by her last name and not me?" Fitz asks, and Jemma's attention is drawn automatically at hearing her name mentioned. 

"Daisy said Simmons is cool, and I called you Leo because I happen to like your name. I could call you Fitz though, if you want me to?" Ward asks, and Jemma smiles at the obvious "heart-eyes" that Daisy has poked fun at for the past few days. Fitz nods his head, and Ward smiles, and Jemma is glad that she invited Fitz to come with her tonight. "She's right there, out in left field. I saw you looking for her. Number twenty-six." Ward offers with a smug grin, which Jemma elects to ignore in favor of locating the player in question. She tries not to ogle Daisy, but she's finding it rather difficult when said girl is wearing softball pants. She never quite saw what the big deal was about sport pants, and the apparent perks of seeing people wearing them, but now that she's actually looking, she cannot argue one bit with the old trope. 

"Easy there tiger."

"Oh, shut it Fitz." Ward and Fitz both burst out laughing while Jemma is preoccupied with trying to calm the burning rush she can feel in her cheeks. 

"Come on Quake, show 'em who's boss!" Ward shouts as Daisy walks up to the home plate. She hears him shouting, and Jemma sees her smile beneath the face mask of her helmet as sees her, and that makes her smile in return. Daisy shoots her a wink and turns back to face where she's walking. "Of course she's going to show off now, why didn't I see this coming?" Ward groans, but Jemma gets the feeling he isn't genuinely upset about it. 

"Why'd you call her Quake?" Jemma questions as Daisy lets a wild pitch go by her, the umpire calling it a ball.

"Because, your girlfriend is known for making really great hits Simmons. One time, right after she won a game, the crowd was so rowdy, I swear the ground was shaking." Ward says as they watch yet another ball be pitched poorly to her. "Son of a- they're going to walk her." He grumbles, this time sounding genuinely irritated. 

"She's not my- uh, well, what do you mean, 'walk her'?" Jemma asks, not wanting to really get into the discussion of what she and Daisy are, because she's not entirely sure herself at this point. 

"The pitcher is intentionally throwing her crappy pitches that way Daisy can't hit them and send all the runners on base home. It's crap." Ward crosses his arms as the umpire calls out for the runners to take a base as the pitcher throws her fourth ball. Daisy lobs her bat back toward her dugout and jogs to first base. (Jemma is glad that the terms Ward has been using are starting to stick.)

*******

"I cannot believe the umpire called her safe. She was so out." Ward seethes as they all watch the number for Hydras's score increases by one, making the scores even at ten for each team. Jemma would be lying if she said that she wasn't worried that her team may not win, and she can tell that even Fitz is rooting for them. Their team manages to get the bases loaded (as Ward called it) right before Daisy is up to bat again, but there's a lot of pressure since they already have two outs. As Daisy walks by, Ward, Fitz, Jemma, and the rest of the crowd cheer as loudly as they can, and Jemma practically swoons as Daisy winks at her again. "The pitcher can't walk her without giving the game to us. Get ready to see Daisy kill it. Five bucks says she's doing it for you Simmons." Ward says, nudging her left side with his elbow while they both refuse to take their eyes off of their friend. 

The pitcher throws two balls and then a strike which Daisy swings at but misses. Ward just hums, and Jemma is beginning to want to pull at her hair because she's starting to feel adrenaline run through her veins but cannot do anything but sit here and watch. The next ball the pitcher throws is heading straight for Daisy's head, but she ducks out of the way at the last second and the umpire calls it a ball. "She could have gotten a free base, she doesn't normally shy away from getting hit." Ward notes, and Jemma's eyes widen as she looks between him and the girl still on home plate.

"Are you seriously saying that she should have let herself get hit?" Jemma asks incredulously. 

"It would have won the game right then and there, and she does it all the time. Takes the hit I mean. She doesn't shy away from a free base. I don't want her getting hurt, it was just really out of character is all." Ward answers as there's a lull in the game, the opponent's coach standing on the pitcher's mound talking with the pitcher. Daisy is stretching, bending down at the waist to touch her toes, and the catcher must say something to her, because her head snaps in her direction as she stands back up, and it looks like she's about to say something back, but the umpire standing there puts his hand on Daisy's shoulder. He says something, and Daisy shakes her head just as the umpire calls for the coach to return to the Hydras's dugout. Daisy turns and looks at them and then gets back in her batting position, and everyone stands up because this is it, either the pitcher throws a ball and that's the game, or she throws a ball that Daisy can hit, and the play will play out. Jemma finds this fairly exciting, and she can tell that Fitz does too if the way he's gripping Ward's left arm is any indication. The two crowds are both cheering and jeering, and Jemma has the urge to go over to the other side and tell them to shut up so that Daisy can focus, but she figures that that is the point of their taunts, but still. 

The pitcher winds up, and when she releases the pitch, Jemma is stunned by how much speed the ball is moving with, and she's watching it hurl toward Daisy, and then she's watching Daisy twist at her hips and swing the bat with such a fluid motion that Jemma isn't exactly sure how to process it. The clear ringing of the bat connecting with the ball is enough to bring her back to the moment though, and she watches the ball instead of the runners who are already moving, but she's so enraptured with how high and far the ball is moving and she's not aware that she's screaming until the ball is bouncing beyond the yellow border of the fence lining the field. Everyone is screaming though, because Daisy Johnson just won their rivalry game. (Jemma can feel Ward's earlier point as she loses her balance as everyone begins celebrating.) Ward turns and crushes Fitz to him in a hug as he cheers and begins jumping in the stands, and Fitz jumps with him despite being wary of the dangers of jumping on these questionable stands, and Jemma is already climbing down the stands toward the dugout where their team is gathering. Her impatience must show, because Ward is laughing at her since he and Fitz both joined her down by the dugout while they wait for the teams to finish their good sportsmanship display. Once they're done, Daisy runs ahead of her teammates and through the dugout to meet her waiting friends. Ward holds his arms out for a hug, but Daisy ducks and spins under his reach and almost tackles Jemma in a hug. 

Jemma laughs as the other girl picks her up and spins her before setting her back down on the ground. She's smiling, and Jemma is too, and then they're leaning in, and Jemma is sure she's going to die because Daisy is going to kiss- but Daisy stops leaning in. 

"Wait. We're on the same page right now, right?" Daisy asks, her eyes worried, and Jemma brings her hands up and cups the other girl's cheeks, not caring about the black paint that is now staining her hands.

"Are we kissing and going out for a celebratory meal on your page?" Jemma asks, as she runs her right thumb over Daisy's sweaty cheek.

"Yeah, are we on yours?" Daisy asks, one of her hands coming up to rest against Jemma's neck, and the other resting on her right hip. Jemma bites her lip and nods, not trusting her voice at the moment. "Then I think we're totally on the same page." Then Jemma is sighing against Daisy's lips, and the other girl tastes like sweat and hard work, and victory. Jemma is positive that she can continue kissing Daisy for the rest of her life if she let herself, and she doesn't plan on stopping, but a throat clearing quickly arranges those plans for her. 

"I can't believe you. One project, and one game, and you can't even give me a hug. I am personally offended Johnson. Come on Fitz, we deserve better than this." Ward says, clutching his chest above his heart and wrapping his other arm around Fitz's shoulders to guide them toward Ward's pickup. Daisy leans in and kisses Jemma much quicker before running after Ward, who hearing her running steps away from Fitz just as the other girl jumps onto his back causing him to stumble. Jemma jogs to catch up and she smiles at Fitz who stops to wait for her. They link arms as they trail behind Ward and Daisy who are now acting like the biggest dorks Jemma has ever seen. 

"Aren't you glad that we didn't get to pick our partners now?" Fitz asks her, glancing toward her with a knowing smile. Jemma rolls her eyes at his not so subtle I-Told-You-So. Daisy and Ward look behind them at the same time, and she just knows that she and Fitz are smiling like complete fools, but seeing as they're fools who have those dorks smiling just as largely back at them, and who have their projects done and submitted a week early, she thinks that being a fool is okay in this instance. 

(But she does not plan on making a habit of it. Of course, that's implying she has a choice in the matter, but with the butterflies in her stomach as Daisy winks at her again, Jemma cannot help but feel that may not be the case when Daisy Johnson is involved.)


End file.
